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| The Finder: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Colin Harrison
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $2.94
You Save: $22.06 (88%)
New (61) Used (40) Collectible (4) from $1.30
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 39755
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0374299498
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780374299491
ASIN: 0374299498
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New..........as titled........next day shipping in a bubble mailer
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| Customer Reviews:
 3 1/2 Stars April 14, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Jin-Li, a beautiful and secretive Chinese woman who becomes involved in a plot to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City, is forced to go on the run when her complicity is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose a fortune, while her secretive former lover, Ray Grant, races against time to find her before her enemies do. BT.
I'd have to agree with some and say this was just an average thriller. It got wordy at times and everything wrapped up a little too quickly at the end. An overall readable thriller with just enough graphics and suspense to push it along.
Lost and Found June 19, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
My introduction to Colin Harrison began with Manhattan Nocturne followed by The Havana Room and then one of his earlier books, Break and Enter (which most of his readers didn't love yet I enjoyed immensely). So I'm definitely a fan and look forward to reading anything by him. I think I would put this one on par with The Havana Room.
I read this on a recent trip to Vegas on a flight that should have taken four hours and ended up taking seven with all of the runway delays. Consequently, the book was started and finished in that one trip. There's nothing I like better than books that keep you on the edge of your seat, even though this time I was wearing a seatbelt so I knew I was secure.
This novel explores the far reaching effects of crime as its tentacles reach as far as China where the wheels begin to turn in a scheme involving a cleaning service and stealing information. It's elaborate and well thought out and it will take a firefighter, in the form of Ray Grant, Jr., to get to the bottom of it. Yes, you heard me right....he's a firefighter but his father was a former NYC detective, whose days are now numbered as he wages his war with cancer.
Harrison is very adept at drawing out his characters and introducing new characters who add to the story as opposed to confusing it. This one gives us a good mix but it's Ray Grant and Jin-Li, his ex-girlfriend, who will lead the charge, trying not to be found in her case and trying to find her in his case.
Usually I would give this book five stars but there was just something missing that I can't exactly put my finger on. It was gritty and riveting but, in the end, it did not find me.
This is Probably the Best Novel by Harrison I have Read May 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Colin Harrison specializes in "literary thrillers" -- his novels are essentially works of suspense, but he spends a huge amount of time developing his characters and describing the realities of urban life. I've read a few of his novels, including his debut BREAK AND ENTER (awful) and THE HAVANA ROOM (very good). I think that THE FINDER is the best Harrison novel I've read so far.
THE FINDER is a relatively fast-paced novel about a complicated business scheme to steal confidential business information. Something goes wrong, leading to a series of murders and other violent incidents. The plot is remarkably silly if you take the time to think about it, but Harrison is a good enough writer to make things believable and compelling.
Some people have compared this work to BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES and I find that a very apt comparion. In many ways, the story simply serves as an excuse for Harrison to introduce a multitude of characters in New York City and describe (usually in minute detail) how they perceive the world. Even the minor supporting characters get this treatment, which will either delight or exasperate the reader. For the most part, I was delighted by Harrison's descriptions, which seemed highly cynical yet true to life.
Harrison is also interested in how things work -- are you curious about how a gas station makes money? Or how documents are disposed of by large corporations? Harrision spend pages of THE FINDER describing these processes in great detail. I found this material fascinating, but I'm guessing that other readers will find themselves bored.
In the end, I found this novel highly entertaining, despite the lack of a truly sympathetic character (a character named Ray Grant comes closest, although he's a bit of a cliche). Harrison is an incredibly gifted writer, and I recommend this novel to people who enjoy books that take the time to fully flesh out their characters and situations.
 An incredibly well-told tale May 13, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There is a vignette in THE FINDER, Colin Harrison's latest novel, that is worth buying and reading the whole book for. Actually, there are several --- several dozen --- but let's talk about just one right now. It involves two men, both named Ray Grant (one Jr., one Sr.). Sr. is an ex-NYPD detective who is dying from the inside out of cancer. He wants Jr., a somewhat enigmatic, extremely capable guy, to help him end it all. Jr. refuses, for what seems like a selfish reason: he wants as much time with Sr. as possible. I've given nothing away here (I hate when people do that, even with the best of intentions, don't you?), but pay close attention to this exchange. It becomes very important later. And, like the rest of THE FINDER, it is an incredibly well-told tale, perfect in every way.
Harrison does not publish often --- about every three or four years is his cycle --- so that, no doubt out of consideration for his audience, he writes stand-alone books instead of series. You won't find yourself wondering how the cast is going to stop a runaway train at the conclusion of one of his novels, which frees him up a bit. He can end a book any way he pleases because you won't see the characters again. Accordingly, he has had some of the darkest endings I can remember reading. It's what comes between the beginning and the end, however, that's important. What Harrison does, to superior effect, is take a bunch of disparate folks, put them to cross-purposes at each other and watch what happens. In the case of THE FINDER, it's quite a bit.
In addition to the two Rays, the book introduces Jin-Li, a young Chinese woman who is the head of a New York City document disposal service with a very select clientele. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Ray Jr. Jin-Li has a brother, Chen, in mainland China who is able to make warehouses full of money thanks to Jin-Li, in a way that will have you shaking your head in admiration while trembling with fear. Jin-Li has a client, Good Pharma, whose nominal head, Tom Reilly, discovers that the small pharmaceutical company has been adversely affected by Chen and Jin-Li. In the unfortunate choice of words to the wrong person, he sets a number of disastrous chains of events in motion.
And there's Bill Martz, with more money than God and the power to buy everyone I've just listed, and more, several times over. Martz is heavily leveraged with Good Pharma, and if the company is hurting, then Martz is really hurting. It turns out that Martz has a low pain threshold, and when he discovers what's going on, it's not pretty.
We begin meeting all of these folks, fine and otherwise, when Jin-Li goes out one night clubbing with a couple of her Hispanic workers. The night ends in a particularly horrific way with two women dead and Jin-Li on the run and in hiding. This incident brings her brother out of his mainland China hidey-hole and to New York City. His financial empire depends upon Jin-Li doing her job, something she can't do while she's in hiding. Chen knows about Ray Jr. and thinks that he is responsible for his sister's disappearance and possible death. Ray doesn't know a thing --- Jin-Li had broken up with him weeks before, and he still does not know why --- but he wants to find out where Jin-Li is and why someone wants to kill her. Ray Jr. turns to his father, one of the best people and detectives he knows. At first, Ray Sr. isn't a lot of help; he is heavily sedated and barely lucid, more often than not. Yet Ray Sr. holds a small but important key to what is occurring in THE FINDER, information upon which Jin-Li's life, and more, will ultimately depend.
Obviously, not everyone who appears here is going to make it to the end. Like most of Harrison's work, it did not conclude the way I thought. All I will say is that you should not expect a sequel. But don't let that keep you from eagerly anticipating his next book, especially if you read THE FINDER.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Cool but dirty New York Thriller May 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was my first Harrison thriller but I was positively surprised by how much I liked it. I live in NYC and its always nice to read about about New York even though I live here because it is the best city in the world. Harrison who also lives here knows all the down and dirty things about this city and its mix of amazing characters. The book starts off with a truly shocking murder that at once repulses but also fascinates because we all know that truly sick people live in this world and some of them have thought about actually doing something like this. While the mystery aspect almost takes a backseat to the characterizations of the people, the ending is satisfying and even a little profound. I will read "Bodies Electric" next (which for some reason is not in print right now and I had to buy it used) .
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